host: some are not strategy as far as moving the debt ceiling ahead. guest: if they had gone ahead with it, it would have been politically cataclysmic. it was the worst percival -- worst possible ground to make their point. president obama 1. i think it's absolutely crucial for the future of the country that you cannot govern from the house. some house republicans, i am sympathetic to their concerns. their enthusiasm try to get in the battle is misplaced. you would have had high-stakes confrontation. in the end, you would have had republicans peeling off. but you would have been, at the beginning, bumping your chest, making all of these demands, saying we're not going to back down. at the end they would cave damn it would have gotten the worst of all possible worlds. there's a lot of frustration in the republican caucus that john boehner has to deal with. i think he did a pretty good job. host: peter wehner, senior fellow at the ethics and the policy center. if you want to find out more about his organization and his writing, visit their web site. comi